"Red Alert" means Martial Law; Where Do You Get War News?

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My friends are asking me: "Where can I get objective coverage of the

Iraq War?" Help answer them -- vote in our new poll at

http://www.tcgreens.org/

and leave a comment sharing your favorite information sources.

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Not Just Bush's War

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030331070349684.html

War Hawks Backtrack, White House “somber"

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030331064619978.html

Bring Our Lads Home -- Send Rumsfeld to War Instead

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/200303310620566.html

Radio Giant Agitates For War

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030328055221748.html

"Red Alert" Means Martial Law

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030328054629483.html

Organic Agriculture Helps Fight Cancer

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030328054301811.html

Lack of Skepticism Leads to Poor Reporting on Iraq Weapons Claims

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030327051036793.html

Spectre of McCarthy Haunts Hollywood

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030327050554158.html

Brutality Towards Al-Qaeda Prisoners Endangers US POWs

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030327050329524.html

Abortion foes abandon trial strategy

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030326102836507.html

750 Ithacans March For Peace

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/2003032610232695.html

Give Protestors a Chance

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030326101718602.html

Monroe County Green's Statement Against War

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030325074415686.html

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Not Just Bush's War

By JERRY GORDON, The Organizer

As president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, George W. Bush

bears direct and personal responsibility for the slaughter of the Iraqi

people currently underway, and for all the other consequences of this

war, including casualties of U.S. troops. But that does not make this

"Bush's war." Such a characterization is both factually wrong and

politically disorienting.

Plans for the conquest of Iraq and U.S. control of its oil were drawn up

decades ago by a group of Washington foreign policy strategists seeking

to ensure U.S. global dominance. It fell to the Bush administration to

attempt to put those plans into effect.

There have been a number of articles published recently which document

the evolution of this strategy. One of the best is by Robert Dreyfuss

titled "Playing for Keeps -- Washington's Endgame for the Persian Gulf,"

which appears in the April 2003 edition of Mother Jones.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030331070349684.html

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War Hawks Backtrack, White House “somber"

Shafi Khan

In the face of fierce Iraqi resistance, Bush administration officials

seem to be backtracking their promises of a quick, painless victory.

Many seem to have forgotten statements made just a few months ago.

Administration hawks who pushed the failed “shock and awe” campaign are

now preparing the American public for a long drawn out conflict.

Richard Perle, the recently resigned chairman of the Defense Policy

Board, in a PBS interview July 11, 2002 called Saddam Hussein’s regime

“a house of cards and said it would collapse at the first whiff of

gunpowder.” Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking to NBC March 16 said,

“My guess is even significant elements of the Republican Guard are

likely as well to want to avoid conflict with the U.S. forces and are

likely to step aside.”

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, in a speech to the Veterans

of Foreign Wars March 11 said “Over and over, we hear reports of Iraqis

here in the United States who manage to communicate with their friends

and families in Iraq, and what they are hearing is amazing. Their

friends and relatives want to know what is taking the Americans so

long.”

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030331064619978.html

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Bring Our Lads Home -- Send Rumsfeld to War Instead

By Robin Cook/The Sunday Mirror

This was meant to be a quick, easy war. Shortly before I resigned a

Cabinet colleague told me not to worry about the political fall-out.

The war would be finished long before polling day for the May local

elections.

I just hope those who expected a quick victory are proved right. I have

already had my fill of this bloody and unnecessary war. I want our

troops home and I want them home before more of them are killed.

It is OK for Bush to say the war will go on for as long as it takes. He

is sitting pretty in the comfort of Camp David protected by scores of

security men to keep him safe. It is easy to show you are resolute when

you are not one of the poor guys stuck in a sandstorm peering around for

snipers.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/200303310620566.html

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Radio Giant Agitates For War

By PAUL KRUGMAN

By and large, recent pro-war rallies haven't drawn nearly as many people

as antiwar rallies, but they have certainly been vehement. One of the

most striking took place after Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie

Chicks, criticized President Bush: a crowd gathered in Louisiana to

watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CD's,

tapes and other paraphernalia. To those familiar with 20th-century

European history it seemed eerily reminiscent of. . . . But as Sinclair

Lewis said, it can't happen here.

Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out,

is that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry

with close links to the Bush administration.

The CD-smashing rally was organized by KRMD, part of Cumulus Media, a

radio chain that has banned the Dixie Chicks from its playlists. Most of

the pro-war demonstrations around the country have, however, been

organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth

based in San Antonio that controls more than 1,200 stations and

increasingly dominates the airwaves.

The company claims that the demonstrations, which go under the name

Rally for America, reflect the initiative of individual stations. But

this is unlikely: according to Eric Boehlert, who has written revelatory

articles about Clear Channel in Salon, the company is notorious and

widely hated for its iron-fisted centralized control.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030328055221748.html

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"Red Alert" Means Martial Law

By TOM BALDWIN

TRENTON, NJ -- If the nation escalates to "red alert," which is the

highest in the color-coded readiness against terror, you will be assumed

by authorities to be the enemy if you so much as venture outside your

home, the state's anti-terror czar says.

"This state is on top of it," said Sid Caspersen, New Jersey's director

of the office of counter-terrorism.

Caspersen, a former FBI agent, was briefing reporters, alongside Gov.

James E. McGreevey, Thursday, when for the first time he disclosed the

realities of how a red alert would shut the state down.

A red alert would also tear away virtually all personal freedoms to move

about and associate.

"Red means all non-critical functions cease," Caspersen said.

"Non-critical would be almost all businesses, except health-related."

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030328054629483.html

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Organic Agriculture Helps Fight Cancer

Plant phenolics (flavonoids) are plant by-products believed to protect

the plant from insect predation, bacterial and fungal infection and

photo-oxidation. This same class of plant chemicals has been found to be

effective in preventing cancer and heart disease, and to combat

age-related neurological dysfunctions.

The main target of these plant chemicals is to protect the cell against

damage caused by active oxygen radicals. Oxygen radicals are generated

from exposure to oxygen that has in turn been activated by exposure to

radiation, heavy metal ions and chemicals. Oxygen radicals cause cancer

by damaging DNA, resulting in mutations; by activating enzymes involved

in regulating cell growth; and by promoting angiogenesis (invasion of

blood vessels into tumours to allow rapid growth of the tumour). Oxygen

radicals are also implicated in cardiovascular disease and age-related

nerve cell damage.

Conventional agriculture depends on heavy applications of chemical

fertilisers, frequent spraying with chemical pesticides and irrigation.

Such practices are believed to inhibit the production of flavonoids. On

the contrary, organic agriculture, which eliminates the use of synthetic

pesticides and chemical fertilizers, creates conditions favourable to

the production of health-enhancing plant flavonoids.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030328054301811.html

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Lack of Skepticism Leads to Poor Reporting on Iraq Weapons Claims

A lack of skepticism toward official U.S. sources has already led

prominent American journalists into embarrassing errors in their

coverage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, particularly in relation to

claims that proof had been found that Iraq possesses banned weapons.

On March 20, the second day of the invasion, U.S. military sources

initially described missiles launched by Iraq as "Scuds"-- the U.S. name

for a Soviet-made missile used by Iraq during the Gulf War. They exceed

the range limits imposed on Iraqi weapons by the 1991 ceasefire

agreement.

While some reporters appropriately sourced the Scud reports to military

officials, and cautioned their audience about the uncertainty of the

identification, others rushed to report claims as facts. NBC's Matt

Lauer's report was definitive: "We understand they have fired three

missiles. One of those was a Scud missile. It was destroyed by a Patriot

missile battery as it headed toward Kuwait."

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030327051036793.html

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Spectre of McCarthy Haunts Hollywood

By Leslie Feinberg

Entertainment moguls are channeling the mean spirit of Joseph McCarthy

in their witch hunts against well-known industry workers who publicly

express opposition to a U.S. war against Iraq.

The Screen Actors Guild board of directors issued a statement on March 3

explaining, "Some have recently suggested that well-known individuals

who express 'unacceptable' views should be punished by losing their

right to work."

The actors' union statement referred to the 1950s "blacklists"--or more

accurately "redlists"--that destroyed many careers and forced others,

like Charlie Chaplin, to flee the country. This rapacious red-baiting

was part of the witch-hunts led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy against

communists and progressives after World War II.

On the same day IATSE, the labor union representing technicians and

other workers in live theatre, film and television production and trade

shows, publicly said that it, "unconditionally concurs with and supports

SAG's statement condemning any hint of blacklisting that is being

threatened as a result of any public statements that disagree with the

current administration's dictates."

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030327050554158.html

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Brutality Towards Al-Qaeda Prisoners Endangers US POWs

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party members are warning that the brutal and

humiliating treatment of al-Qaeda prisoners has put American soldiers

captured by Saddam Hussein's army in grave peril.

"The whole world has seen video footage of shackled and shaved men

transported in plastic containers and confined to cages in Guantanamo,"

said Anita Rios, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "The

world knows that the Pentagon has sent some captive al-Qaeda members to

other nations to be interrogated under torture. In November, 2002, six

al-Qaeda members were executed by a missile launched by a CIA drone in

Yemen. It's possible that Saddam, a murderous dictator, will use this as

a license to visit similar treatment on American soldiers taken captive.

President Bush, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and Attorney General

Ashcroft must order an end to this kind of treatment immediately."

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030327050329524.html

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Abortion foes abandon trial strategy

By Beverly Hiestand and Ellie Dorritie, Buffalo, N.Y.

Right-wing terrorists who want to deny reproductive rights for

women--the right to decide when and if to bear children--had vowed to

use the murder trial of James C. Kopp as a media circus. They had to

shift gears.

In an interview with two reporters from the Buffalo News in the Erie

County Holding Center last November, Kopp admitted that he fatally shot

Dr. Barnett Slepian, a respected ob-gyn doctor who provided abortions.

Slepian was killed in 1998 with a bullet from a high-powered rifle while

at home with his family. However, Kopp denied he had committed any

crime.

Kopp, and the reactionary current that politically supports him, had

announced that they would use the trial to argue that this was an act of

"justifiable homicide" and maintain a media presence throughout the

trial, which had been expected to last about one month.

However, on March 11, Kopp chose a non-jury trial in which no one would

testify. As a result, he was tried on March 17 with no witnesses--not

even Kopp himself. Instead, County Judge Michael L. D'Amico reviewed 35

pages of stipulated facts, listened to attorney arguments and handed

down the guilt verdict the next day.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030326102836507.html

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750 Ithacans March For Peace

Yesterday March 22, 2003 protesters met at Ithaca's Dewitt Park for a

funeral procession through town past the Ithaca Journal and the Ithaca

Times in protest of the war and in remembrance of the lives lost and to

be lost by both the Iraqi and U.S. people and also of the death of truth

in media. Before the march began several statements were read aloud to

the waiting and gathering crowd.

"We come together today to mourn all victims of war â€“ the lives of

Iraqi and U.S. people and to embrace the spirit of nonviolence in

thought, word and deed.

As we walk in this funeral procession please remember the Iraqi mother

who has no place for her children to be safe from U.S. bombs and guns.

Please remember the Iraqi youth who only know [sic] an American that

wants to wage war with them â€“ an 18 year old man in Iraq has spent 13

years of his life being attacked by the U.S. with bombs and sanctions.

Please remember the U.S. soldiers who are being ordered to be ready to

kill another human beingâ€¦who are being exposed to radioactive depleted

uranium particles as they breathe the air where bombs have exploded.

Please remember the children of Iraq and U.S. soldiers, born with birth

defects as a result of their fathers' and mothers' exposure to this DU

poison. Please remember the death of innocence for U.S. children who are

asking their parents, "Am I going to be bombed? Do I have to worry about

this?"

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/2003032610232695.html

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Give Protestors a Chance

Peter Rosset; March 21, 2003

There comes a time when mild opposition turns to serious concern, when

reasonable voices are ignored, when 'polite' mass turnouts are ignored,

when serious concern turns to anger and outrage. When does that point

come? When is it justified to do something that inconveniences the

morning commute? When international law is violated? When innocent lives

are at stake? When our schools are sacrificed for war? When our votes

are ignored, when polls are ignored, when national and global public

opinion is ignored?

I write this for those who are uncomfortable with anti-war protests that

block streets and inconvenience commuters. I ask you to have an open

mind. Feel free to disagree when you are finished, though I hope you

will come away with new perspective.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030326101718602.html

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Monroe County Green's Statement Against War

My name is Jason Crane, and I'm the chair of the Green Party of Monroe

County. I want to begin by saying that the Green Party unconditionally

opposes this illegal war, and the use of violence in international

affairs.

As Bush's war begins, we're asked to cast aside our opposition and to

support our troops.

I can't do that. I can't pretend that everything we in the peace

movement have been saying has been rendered meaningless by the start of

the war. I can't oppose this illegal conflict, then turn around and

support the illegal actions of our military.

Do I want to see Americans killed in combat? Of course not. No more than

I want to witness the deaths of countless innocent Iraqi men, women and

children. And I sympathize with the mothers and fathers and husbands and

wives and children whose relatives are fighting a war they didn't choose

for a president they didn't elect.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030325074415686.html

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